


The five times Matthew and Leila kissed (and the one time Leila couldn’t kiss back)

by multifandommess



Category: Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken | Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Genre: F/M, Lots of personal headcanons regarding Matthew and Leila's past, Mainly for the sake of having more to work with for the fic lmao, Spoilers for Chapter E18/H19: The Dread Isle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-09 23:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17414615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/multifandommess/pseuds/multifandommess
Summary: A look at the rise and fall of the relationship between two of Ostia’s finest spies.





	The five times Matthew and Leila kissed (and the one time Leila couldn’t kiss back)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Fire Emblem Fan Month almost 4 years ago now
> 
> Matthew & Leila’s pasts are both unknown, so in order to give myself a bit more to work with for this fic, I headcanoned that they knew each other since they were young (from neighboring villages, so they wouldn’t necessarily know each other’s parents), went their separate ways, met back up as spies for Ostia, and quickly rekindled their relationship ~~before it gets completely ruined thanks to Ephidel rip~~

******1\. Accidental kiss**

From a young age, Matthew had always been a daredevil--and for as long as she’d known him (which was far too long if either of them were ever to be asked, even if they were still barely old enough to pick up a weapon), Leila found herself being dragged along on each and every crazy “adventure” that Matthew’s boundless imagination could fabricate. Some were dangerous, others silly, some were both, yet always the two were left breathless from a mixture of exhaustion and laughter as they avoided angry townsfolk and guards alike.

They were far enough away to slow their pace, yet they continued running for the sheer thrill of it, completely unaware of their adjoined hands--until Matthew lost his footing on the uneven forest terrain, pulling Leila down with him as the two tumbled to the ground in a heap of limbs.

Had their limbs been the only thing to accidentally collide, they would have easily laughed it off and continued on their way.

Instead, the two found themselves frozen in place, their lips pressed against one another’s as they lay on the dirt, their eyes wide open in a mixture of bewilderment and surprise as each waited for the other to do or say something--though it was hard for either of them to say how they really hoped the other would react.

Finally, Matthew pulled himself together and scrambled off of Leila, his face equally as red as her own as he offered her a hand without meeting her eyes, finding that his usual wit and sense of humor was failing him in the face of such an embarrassing incident. Leila took the proffered hand after a moment while forcing her gaze away from his lips, the two remaining silent and avoiding each other’s gazes even as they parted ways to return home.

They both vowed never to speak of this incident ever again.

* * *

**2\. Sneaky kiss**

Though they never spoke of the incident again, their first (accidental) kiss remained on their minds as days turned to weeks, and weeks to months--but despite the awkwardness of the moment, the two seemed to grow even closer and more inseparable than ever before. They were slowly becoming more open to the idea of being more than just friends, and before they knew it they’d made a game out of coyly flirting with one another: a comment here, a fleeting touch there, just to see who could fluster the other more.

If they made it into a game, then it was easier to not think about it too seriously, after all.

Of course, Matthew could never let himself be one-upped in anything (even though, irritatingly enough, Leila seemed to be just the slightest bit better than him at most of the things the two of them competed in), so when he saw an opening, he decided to run with it without really thinking. Thinking too hard only slowed him down, anyway.

It was a calm, quiet day, perfect for his sneak attack on the unsuspecting girl (or maybe “young woman” would be more appropriate) who was just leaving the forest that connected their two villages. It took two seconds to sneak over to her side without her noticing, one second for his lips to connect with her cheek, and less than a second for him to slip away before she could so much as react, let alone come after him to retaliate.

Leila was left staring at the spot where Matthew had just been, a blush steadily coloring her face as she absently reached up to touch her cheek, before she smiled and rolled her eyes in amusement--how like Matthew, to do what he set out to do and slip away before she could respond.

(Of course, it went without saying that she paid him back later, and thoroughly enjoyed his flustered expression while she was at it.)

* * *

  **3\. Kiss to an injury**

It was rare, but not entirely unheard of for one of the two to blunder in their escapades--more so Matthew, who tended to act first and think later, than Leila, who was often the one who thought up the plans that Matthew never seemed to follow (though the end results were usually more fun whenever Matthew derailed her plans, not that she would ever tell him that). This time was no different: Leila found herself patching up her friend-who-was-a-boy-but-not-quite-a-boyfriend-just-yet Matthew, who was laughing off her scoldings with a carefree smile that only wavered whenever the antiseptic came in contact with one of his open cuts.

Once she finally finished cleaning all of his cuts, she bandaged them up tightly (perhaps a bit _too_ tightly if Matthew’s complaints were anything to go by, but hey, if he wasn’t going to listen to her scolding him with words then maybe he’d listen to actions instead), and sat back with a satisfied smile as she looked over her handiwork. Her eyes came to rest on one of the bigger cuts that she bandaged, and a silly idea came to mind--and figuring that Matthew couldn’t be the only one of the two of them to act on impulse, she leaned over to press a kiss to the bandage, her embarrassment eased the slightest bit by Matthew’s complaints immediately turning to flustered sputtering as he questioned what she was doing.

Kissing an injury to make it heal faster wasn’t all that odd of a thing to do, was it? No, Leila knew that Matthew had heard of such a silly thing before, and she knew that he was just embarrassed by the sudden display of affection.

Of course, Matthew was nothing if not unpredictable, so the hand that suddenly reached out and pinched her upper lip was completely unexpected--but the response to questioning him why he’d done such a thing left her both flustered and amused as he leaned forward and tentatively pressed his lips to hers.

Wanting to kiss her injured lip better? Matthew was just getting more and more hopeless--and as she kissed him back, Leila couldn’t help but think that maybe he wasn’t the only hopeless one.

* * *

**4\. Kiss for good luck**

The years that passed were by far the most difficult years that either of them had ever lived through: with Matthew’s mother falling ill, he was forced to put his dream of working side by side with Leila as spies under the Marquess of Ostia himself on hold, though he encouraged her to go without him with the promise that he would join her soon enough.

It took a lot of hard work and dedication, but Matthew was able to help earn (both honestly and not-so-honestly) enough money to pay for a doctor to come and help his mother, and by the grace of Saint Elimine she was able to make a full recovery, allowing Matthew to make good on his promise as he made haste to Castle Ostia to present himself to the Marquess.

His reunion with Leila didn’t last as long as either of them would have liked, but despite being sent on separate missions, the two were happy as could be--they’d achieved their dream, dangerous as it may be, and they knew that they could always come back to be with each other at the castle without having to travel between villages just to see each other.

However, things began taking a turn for the worse as trouble started brewing within--and outside--the borders of Lycia, and the two spies knew that their time together was going to come to an end fairly soon. Still, they parted with a promise rather than a farewell as they were given their separate (and secret--they weren’t even able to speak to each other about it, though they’d been in the field long enough by now to have gotten used to such necessary acts of secrecy) missions, their lips pressing against one another’s in a brief yet heartfelt kiss.

Matthew cheekily asked for one more kiss for good luck as soon as they pulled apart, and while she normally would have brushed the request off with an amused, coquettish retort, Leila found herself leaning forward to indulge his silly request--and perhaps to indulge herself a bit, as well.

* * *

  **5\. Loving kiss**

The relief that Matthew felt upon laying eyes on that familiar face over a year later was almost enough to send him collapsing to the ground. Of course, he knew that Leila would poke fun at him for the entirety of the small amount of time they had if the first thing she saw was him on the ground, and so he took a breath to compose himself before approaching her with his usual carefree countenance.

The conversation was brief--far too brief, but it was his own fault, really. He always had that habit of saying what he wanted to say and slipping away before receiving a reply, but part of him knew that she would find him no matter where he ran to.

It was just another one of their games, after all.

So he waited, and she found him in hardly any time at all--but of course he was as slippery as ever as he evaded the subject that he himself had been the one to bring up, and instead steered the conversation away from his hometown and towards Leila, asking her how she was doing and jokingly inquiring if she’d been thinking of him at all in their time apart.

The pair of lips pressing against his own were the only answer he needed, and the manner in which Matthew returned her kiss was enough to tell Leila that she had been on his mind just as much as he had been on her’s.

Not once were the three most important words spoken, nor did either of them feel the need to speak them--not when their actions spoke so much louder and conveyed so much more than their words ever could.

* * *

  **6\. A kiss goodbye**

“... I should’ve said it when I had the chance.”

His fingers lightly brushed along Leila’s cheek, smiling bitterly as he recalled the warmth of her skin that was now nothing more than a memory.

“You knew how I felt though, didn’t you?”

Of course she did, she had to--after all, he had no doubts about her feelings towards him, so there was no reason for her not to know his feelings towards her.

The hole had already been dug, the dirt set aside... yet he couldn’t bring himself to lower her into it, not yet.

“It’s such a shame... you deserve so much better than this, you know.”

He hated how his voice cracked, how his vision swam, how his heart clenched as if folding in on itself to hide from the pain of reality....

“Such a dreary place... it doesn’t suit you at all, haha....”

Shaking his head slightly, he forced a smile.

“We were fools, weren’t we? Choosing a life like this.... I was going to ask you to put this life behind you along with me, but I guess it’s too late for that, huh?”

Matthew leaned over and pressed his lips to Leila’s, claiming one final kiss before slowly setting her down in the ground with the heavy knowledge that he was burying half of his heart alongside her.

“Goodbye, Leila.... I love you.”

He turned away as soon as he finished sealing and marking her grave, rising to his feet and solemnly beginning his trek back to Hector and his troops. It was only when he spotted them in the distance that he drew to a halt, closing his eyes and taking a shaky breath to regain control of his emotions.

This was war, after all. There was no time to mourn on the battlefield.

He quickly dried his eyes with the back of his sleeve, allowing his usual smile to return to his face as he returned to the front lines.

“I’m back, my lord!”

_Tell me, Leila… This is what you’d want, right? You wouldn’t want me to give up. I’ll mourn for you when our battle is won. I must fulfill my duty. So rest… I promise I will take care of everything._


End file.
